Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”

—Revelation 21:1-5a

For the first time in my life, I really feel like it’s an exciting time to be alive. I don’t mean that I haven’t enjoyed my life previously or that I’ve even had a particularly difficult life before the last couple of years, but what I do mean is that for the first time that I can remember, I can feel God moving on a grand, global scale. 

Revivals are happening on college campuses. The study of apologetics is becoming more popular. Strongholds of sin in our culture are being brought to light. Christians around the globe—no longer primarily in America—are being called to go on mission to unreached people groups. Christians are starting to live up to our potential as creative forces for the Gospel in the media and pop culture. God is opening eyes on a large scale about the Holy Spirit and spiritual warfare. God is on the move, and I’ve never been more excited to see what He will do next.

One of the ways God has been moving in me in the past couple of years is by showing me what Heaven will be like one day. I don’t mean that I’ve pulled a John and had a vision of Heaven, but He’s been putting books and resources in my path that have shown me some so-awesome-I-don’t-have-words-for-it type of things about my eternal home and I want to share. (If you’re interested in learning more, I’d start with John Burke’s book Imagine Heaven. You can get it on Amazon for pretty cheap.)

I’ve been hearing the never-ending worship service interpretation of Heaven since I was a child, and I’ve never been a fan. I grew up a music minister’s kid, so I’m pretty used to singing and worshipping God through song, but I can’t say I’m enthusiastic about killing off every other part of my personality to do nothing but sing for all eternity. Partly because of this belief about Heaven and partly because of the vastness of the idea of eternity, I spent much of my childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood being quite afraid of what Heaven held for me. 

I don’t know if there’s anyone else out there who’s struggled with similar feelings, but here are some things I’ve learned about the eternal home God’s created for us that have brought me comfort. And a little excitement too.

1. Less a worship service; more a celebration.
   
   Many times Scripture uses the metaphor of a wedding feast to refer to Heaven. The wedding feast was a huge part put on by the family of the groom. It lasted for days and was a time for joy, singing, dancing, and feasting. Glorifying God will be one of our activities in Heaven, but I don’t think it’ll look like what we think of when we think of a worship service. We might still have worship services, but I think we’ll also glorify God by celebrating—celebrating who He is and the wonder gifts He’s given us.
   
2. A divine move.
   I can’t wait to see what God’s version of moving to a new home is. It apparently involves divinely moving the location of an entire city. There are two things I love about this. First, the city is Jerusalem. Of course, Jerusalem is significant in Scripture, but I love that God chose this city because Jerusalem means city of peace. He could’ve chosen any city to be our eternal setting and He chose the City of Peace. What a gift after living in this world!
   
   Second, He’s bringing the whole city. Not just the white chapel with the pretty steeple. Cities have to have diversity to function. Leaders. Builders. Merchants. Artisans and artists. All kinds of people doing all kinds of things, and if we’re part of that city, we’ll have our own place uniquely tailored to us and our passions.
   
3. It’s not about what we do.
   Over half of this passage is God speaking from His throne to John about all the wonderful things He’s going to do. Not the order of hymns we’ll be singing when we get there. It’s not about what we’ll do. While I do believe that we’ll be ministering to and worshipping God in Heaven because our relationship with Him will be restored and a healthy relationship involves both parties offering themselves to the other, that’s not the emphasis here.
   
   To tell the truth, I almost feel the excitement coming out of God’s words. When we make it to Him, when the race is run and we get to step into our Father’s embrace at the finish line, He’s not worried about what we will do. He’s excited to heal our bruises and clean us up and give us the biggest bear hug we can imagine. He’s excited to be with His sons and daughters again.

I want to encourage you this week, especially if you were like me and have always assumed that eternity in Heaven would be better than the alternative, but it still might be a little bit boring, to look into it yourself. We live in a time when God is revealing so much more about things we took for granted as unknowable before. Now’s the perfect time to do some investigation because from what I’ve seen, God’s got some really amazing plans for us when we’re finally called Home.